Agency Workers Mileage Tax Rebates
Employment agencies can be very useful to those of us who want seasonal work, temporary contracts or a potential ‘way in’ to a more permanent position.
Just like everyone else agency workers often pay for their own travel costs to work. As a general rule as an employed person you can claim tax relief on the cost incurred on traveling to a temporary workplace.
The problem for an agency worker is that different rules apply when it comes to claiming for travel. This means in comparison to someone who is not employed by agency you could be losing out on substantial travel tax rebates.
Agency workers and mileage costs
Agency workers are on the whole treated differently by HMRC when defining a temporary workplace. If you don’t have a temporary workplace you will not be eligible to claim tax relief on your travel costs.
This is very important to know before considering a claim for travel expenses so you don’t waste your time trying to claim back a tax rebate you are not entitled to.
An agency worker can usually claim for traveling between more than one temporary workplace in any one working day. If you travel to just one place of work within any one day, you would not normally be entitled to claim for your travel or mileage costs.
An Agency worker mileage rebate example
A good example would be a healthcare worker visiting different clients in the community. In this case more than one location is visited in any one day meaning tax relief should be due for the mileage incurred after the first visit of the day.
Mileage rates
If you are entitled to reclaim mileage relief the normal AMAP mileage rates apply of .45p per mile for the first 10,000 miles and .25p thereafter. If you are reimbursed for any mileage by your employer this needs to be taken into consideration before submitting a claim.
You can use our free mileage relief calculator to work out how much your claim could be worth.
Are you owed an agency worker mileage tax rebate?
You might be due an income tax rebate from HMRC, if you’ve incurred mileage expenses for work travel.
And you can apply directly to HMRC through the self assessment system, or using form P87. Most people use the easy online process, but there’s a postal option for people in particular circumstances.
HMRC assesses your claim and then sends you any mileage tax rebate they owe you. Just make sure you keep your travel log and other evidence, in case they need to check your claim.
